Time. Trust. Truth. Teamwork.

Communicating through writing is what I do day in and day out, so I thought I’d share a fresh way to remember a few elements of communication whether you use them verbally or in writing. I hope they will remind us how to successfully communicate well with others.

Time matters. When you have no margin in your life to write or to talk with your loved ones (especially your spouse), then communication becomes stilted, scattered, and stifled, whether written or oral. In this crazy world of busyness, you simply have to schedule time to write or communicate with those you love. Be intentional about it, and revisit your schedule when it slides, because it will. Even if you only make 10-15 minutes a day a scheduled, intentional time to write or to talk with your mate, it’ll strengthen your communication journey. It may take turning off the TV, phone, computer, etc., for a certain amount of time, but it’s well worth it. And then, annually or semi-annually, get away and intentionally write or talk about your hopes, dreams, and desires spiritually and relationally.

Trust matters. You’ve got to build trust into your communication, whether written or verbal, and you have to keep it strong. Stay faithful, servant-hearted, humble, and empathetic in your communication. Be caring, affirming, and attentive to your audience, whether that audience is your spouse or a million readers. Be approachable, responsible, gracious, and forgiving with your writing critiques or with your spouse. Sounds hard? Not really. All this looks a lot like l-o-v-e.

Truth matters. Of course we don’t want to be untruthful, dishonest, or liars. But many times, our “truth” is only our opinion, our perspective, our bias instead of biblical truth. We need to build biblical truth into our communication and add big doses of grace, love, and humility. And we must speak and write the truth—in love—as Ephesian 4 commands us.

Teamwork matters. Build a team spirit with your spouse or with your critique group, editor, agent, and others who are with you on the journey. My husband is my greatest fan, my trusted first editor, and my gentle critic. As you work with your team—in whatever you do—your communication will blossom and you’ll be more successful in your endeavors. Accept the different opinions that each of you may have, even celebrate them, for they are what creates great communication, written or verbal.

How do you make time to write and/or communicate with your loved ones? I’d love to know!